| Sailor Star Healer | |
|---|---|
 The Sailor Starlights--Sailor Star Healer in the middle | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Kodansha Limited |
| First appearance | Sailor Moon Act 43 |
| Created by | Naoko Takeuchi |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Kou Yaten / Yaten Lights |
| Identity | Female crossdresser (manga)
Super gender bender (anime) |
| Abilities | Light-based magical powers
Angelic wings |
| Allies and alliegances | Sailor Starlights
Princess Kakyuu |
| Enemies | Sailor Galaxia
Sailor Iron Mouse |
Sailor Star Healer is a member of the Sailor Starlights, a trio of Sailor Senshi in the Sailor Moon manga and anime. They were created by Sailor Moon creator Naoko Takeuchi and published by Kodansha Limited.
History[]
Sailor Star Healer is a member of the Sailor Starlights, three Sailor Senshi who were the lone survivors of the planet Kinmoku after Sailor Galaxia attacked. When on the planet, they served as protectors of Princess Kakyuu. Upon coming to Earth, the Starlights disguised themselves as a male pop group called the Three Lights.
Kou Yaten (夜天 光 Yaten Kō) is often distant and cynical about everything. Yaten does not like to socialize or do sports. His/her remarks are often sharp-edged and blunt, which further separates him/her from the world. At one point, the other Starlights even chastise Yaten for behaving in a way that might reduce the number of fans. However, he and Luna get along well. At one point during episode 178, Luna inspires Yaten to keep on fighting. In the course of the season Yaten bonds with Minako Aino who takes a liking to him. Their intricate relationship becomes evident in episode 192 where Minako enters an idol audition and Yaten is one of the jurors.
In the manga, Yaten is a female that dresses up as a male. Blunt, and to the point, for example antagonizing Michiru Kaioh for her choice of lipstick. Yaten doesn't interact with the people around her much. She wants to focus on the mission most of all. She is egotistical and nurses grudges, and she hates injury.
In the anime, he has the most spiritual awareness of the Starlights, and is able to tell when Starseeds are taken by Sailor Galaxia. He views humans as untrustworthy and wants to find Princess Kakyuu so they can leave Earth as quickly as possible. This comes further to light when they discover that Usagi is Sailor Moon. Yaten believes that Seiya should stay away from Usagi, despite their wish, shared by Princess Kakyuu and the Guardian Senshi, for them all to work together. His view is shared by Taiki as well as Sailors Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. However, also like Taiki, his views on Usagi change for the better near the end of Sailor Stars. In Yaten's civilian form in the anime, "he" is shown to be physically stronger than Makoto Kino, the strongest of the Guardian Senshi, in her civilian form.
Yaten's responsibilities in the band are background vocals, keyboards, bass guitar, and song arrangement. S/he also enjoys photography, but doesn't belong to any school club, preferring to just go home.
Powers and abilities[]
Like all Sailor Senshi, Sailor Star Healer is given special powers and items that aid in her missions as a soldier of her their planet and ruler.
- Healer Star Power, Make-Up! — Changes Yaten into Sailor Star Healer (and, in the anime, back into a female).
- Star Sensitive Inferno — Sailor Star Healer's attack, a circular blast of lightning.
- Star Healer Beam, Star Healer Tornado, and Star Healer Worm — additional attacks listed in the Materials Collection for Sailor Star Healer. It was never specified what they did nor were they ever used in the any version of the series.
- Starlights Fusion Tempest — A special combined attack from all three Starlights and the only physical attack other than the Sword of Sealing able to physically hurt Sailor Galaxia. It is only named in the Eien Denstesu musical, but something similar is seen in Episode 199 of the anime. In the manga, Sailor Kakyuu uses a similarly named attack called Kinmoku Fusion Tempest.
- Star Yell — The palm sized star-shaped device used by the Starlights to launch their attacks. It is also sometimes called the Sailor Star Yell. It only appears in the anime.
- Sailor Change Star — According to Bandai, this is a two piece set of the microphone and brooch used by the Starlights to transform. According to Naoko Takeuchi's own notes, the brooches contains the Sailor Crystals of the Starlights, similar to those of Sailor Moon and Sailor Chibi Moon.
- She can grow a pair of angelic wings in the manga.
Sailor Star Healer in other media[]
Aside from the manga and anime, the character has appeared alongside the other Starlights in various media. They appeared in the Sailor Moon musicals Sailor Stars, Eien Densetsu, Ryuusei Densetsu, and Kakyuu-Ouhi Kourin, as well as their own songs, due to their cover as a music group.
In the musicals, it is not clear whether they are crossdressers or magically change their forms, though they keep the personalities characterized in the anime. Yaten is portrayed as more reluctant to help the other Sailors in these productions. She is also portrayed as less cynical and more airheaded.
Actresses[]
In the anime, Kou Yaten is voiced by Chika Sakamoto. In the musical version, Yaten is played by Mamoko Okuyama and Mikako Tabe
Censorship[]
In the Italian dub, instead of changing sex of the Starlights, there were six people - the Starlights were always men and simply summoned their twin sisters instead of transforming, as the original depiction was very controversial in Italy. Similarly in the Russian dub, the Sailor Starlights were consistently referred to as men, even in their Senshi forms (despite the visible breasts). However, they had different voice actors in their civilian and senshi forms. Some countries implied that they were still men, even when transformed, or were women in civilian form. The North American, French, Swedish, Dutch, and Hungarian dubs did not get the rights to this season, so they never appeared. In the Korean dub, the Sailor Starlights were female in both their civilian and senshi forms. Surprisingly, the Latin American dubs, specifically those from Mexico and Brazil (which also refused to change the romantic nature of Uranus' and Neptune's relationship) kept the nature of the Starlights gender intact, the same done in the Hebrew dub, except for them keeping male voice actors for the both civilian and senshi forms.
In fact, the anime made them transsexuals instead of cross-dressers to avoid the controversy caused by Uranus and Neptune's relationship.
The Starlights are usually falsely attributed to the fifth season not being dubbed into English. Despite popular belief, this is really because Toei would not sell the rights to it. However, it has been reported that an independent British company attempted to produce a dub, but later backed down claiming they were dressed provocatively for a children's program. The French dub reportedly did not dub the series viewing the idea of transsexuals too risque for children, however.